


Cat and Mouse Games

by Nunya_Business



Category: Moss (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:47:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28299924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nunya_Business/pseuds/Nunya_Business
Summary: Some time after defeating Sarffog, saving her uncle, and finding the King's Glass, signs of a new adventure rouse Quill from her recently quiet life. Scroll on, Reader, and follow Quill as she brings balance back to the forest.(Written after the first game, but takes place some time after the second. Should the second game ever come out, it will likely invalidate/contradict much of the plot here)
Kudos: 1





	1. Empty Stable

It was nearly dawn. Quill and her uncle, Sir Argus, were resting soundly in their cottage. Suddenly, a bright blue light shone from the seam in the large chest downstairs. Quill and her uncle woke at once on their opposite sides of the cottage, their heads shooting up and looking about. They both saw the glow, now fading, and knew their rest for the night was over.

Vaulting out of bed and grabbing her sack by the nightstand, Quill ran downstairs toward the chest. Throwing it open, she saw one thing she expected, and another she did not. It was, as she had guessed, the Glass that was emitting the glow, but it was not the Glass that once belonged to the Mire Sprite Champion. Rather, it was the chipped King's glass she'd retrieved from the castle but a moon ago. She delicately picked up the damaged artifact, and raised her head to look at the reader she now felt was there. After a few swivels, she realized this reader was different. Lacking the distinct form of the friendly giant she was used to, and the two luminescent orbs that had helped and comforted her so many times, Quill felt this reader wouldn't be able to provide as much assistance. She thought that may be because of the relic's damaged state.

Her uncle approached, footsteps heavy. "I don't suppose, Quill; that you'd allow me to handle this?" Sir Argus queried. Quill retorted with a giggle, "No Uncle, we both know how that went for you last time." Sir Argus grasped at his heart, "You wound me, my niece." He sighed, "I don't like this. I thought when you defeated Byigg, the winged king killer; the evil had finally been purged from these woods. And I don't like the state of that glass. Is your new reader looking alright?" "They're... less opaque than usual, to say the least, uncle. But don't worry, not every adventure must involve the armies of evil, I'm sure I can handle it myself." Quill replied, as she donned the leafy orange armor and fiery rapier of the Sprite Champion. She started heading to the door, brooking no argument. "Come back safe or I'll ground you for a year young lady!" Sir Argus shouted as Quill waved once and closed the door behind her.

Outside, she took a deep breath and began heading to the side of the house where the family steed, Rufus the squirrel; was kept. Was, in an unusually past tense, as it turned out. Rufus was nowhere to be seen. Quill opened the gate and entered the area he would normally rest. She was able to see where his clawed feet left dents in the ground, but there were large spaces between each mark. Quill concluded Rufus must have been running. Thinking he must be in danger, she began following the tracks deeper into the woods, towards the mire, at speed. Perhaps if she hadn't been in such a rush, Quill could have noticed the huge but light paw print in the middle of the road.


	2. To Hunt and to be Hunted

Quill followed Rufus's tracks as they winded under tree roots, through the discarded armor of the giants, and across bridges of twigs. Eventually she found a tree at which the trail of paw prints terminated. Looking up into the branches Quill was finally able to spot Rufus, busy chattering and nibbling on an acorn high in the tree. Now a bit peeved that she'd come all this way to find him unworried, eating, Quill's guard was down as far as it could go. There was a rustling in the brush nearby. She dismissed it as the wind as she ruminated on how to get Rufus down. It was not until the brush gave a final rustle and a huge shadow came over her that Quill was aware of any danger, and by then it was too late.

She looked up, her ears falling back as the huge beast descended rapidly on her. Quill was just recognizing it as a cat, an animal her Uncle had taught her of; when its paw caught her in the side in a lightning fast sweep. She was sent flying into the undergrowth. As she rolled to a stop, the mouse warrior felt near death and frantically looked about for a place to hide. "There!" she thought; as she spotted a mole's burrow nearby. Limping towards it, Quill tried to steady her heartbeat and slow her breathing, not wanting to give the cat any way to find her. The mouse's side felt heavily bruised, with sharp lines of fiery pain where she was sure deep cuts from the cat's claws would have lain if not for her armor. As it was, she did still feel her blood run down her side lightly.

Minding herself so much, Quill nearly fell into the hole, but managed to cap off her stumble with a dodge roll; though she opted to not attempt to stand back up after the roll. She lay there on her back, and decided she'd need a plan. "I definitely can't kill that thing. Even back with my first Reader, if they'd held the cat still; it'd still take a moon to cut it up enough to send it running. My uncle would ask, 'What's in my pocket', what tools do I have on me and in my environment to win?" Quill thought to herself. Having elected to stay out in the woods rather than go with her people back to the kingdom she had liberated from evil; Quill had recently needed to help her uncle forage for supplies and hence increased her worldly knowledge of the local vegetation. The mouse had seen an interesting plant nearby before entering the mole's home, if it was what she thought it was, it was her ticket out of this predicament.

Quill knew though, in her state, she'd likely never make it to the flower before the cat caught her scent and got its meal. Her other Reader, through the undamaged glass, was able to heal her. But she already knew that you, Reader, lack the correct medium to do so. "Even still," Quill thought; "perhaps I can take advantage of the Reader's power anyway?" She pulled the cracked King's glass from her sack and held it close to her chest. "Please," Quill prayed; "I just need a little help. Just heal the bruising, don't even worry about the cuts."

The partial orb glowed brilliant blue, its rays shining out from the gaps in the mouse's grasp. She felt the swelling on her side die down, and her muscles relaxed. "Thank you." Quill thought; as she stood up once more to her full, diminutive height. She scrambled up the steep incline at the top of the burrow, and took in her surroundings with haste. Spotting an oddly shaped, purple flower nearby, she snapped her fingers. "Wolfsbane," Quill thought; "exactly what I need." She retreated just a bit back in the hole to stretch her legs in preparation for her mad-dash supply run.


	3. The Plan

The mouse warrior vaulted over the edge of the burrow and started jogging towards the flowering stalk. She was still in heavy vegetation so she didn't feel much in danger yet; but the plant was in a clearing. As she left the safety of the undergrowth Quill broke into a sprint. She was almost at the flower and the cat was still nowhere to be seen. Jumping as high as she could, she was able to grab onto the lowest petal of Wolfsbane, the plant bending back with her weight. As it began to spring back into place, Quill hung onto the petal with one paw and slashed at the thin stalk connecting it to the rest of the plant. She soared through the air back towards the hole, clearing a large distance by sheathing her rapier and holding the petal between her paws as a glider.

Just as she landed and made to resume her sprint back into the undergrowth, petal in tow; she saw the cat eclipse the sun, leaping over the very brush she was headed towards. A lesser mouse would certainly have turned tail then, but Quill didn't count herself lucky enough to find another hiding spot elsewhere. Rather, Quill drew her sword and headed right to the cat's landing spot. As its paws came down, Quill dodged away from the front paw that was about to flatten her. The ground beneath quaked as the cat landed, and Quill felt her legs shake with the impact as well. Still, she had bought herself some time, as she'd dodged right beneath the cat. Running towards its hind legs and the burrow, she took a moment to jump up and slice at a tendon in its left rear leg. Quill felt it was unlikely she struck her target through the fur and hide of the cat; but she heard it yowl as she continued her sprint back to safety.

Quill had planned to return to the burrow and spend some time riling the cat up before getting it to eat the wolfsbane, a poisonous flower; but she was sure it was mad now, and she wasn't sure she could make it back before the cat caught up. "There!" Quill thought, as she spotted a particularly muddy puddle. She ran her paw along her injured side, and lathered up the somewhat rat shaped petal with her own blood. She flung it forward like a discus as she took a deep breath and dived into the mud.

There, she felt once last trick would make the cat fall for the ruse. With the champion's rapier she had obtained in the twilight portals, her Reader had been able to ignite her weapon with their energy, allowing Quill to fire off a brilliant projectile. She grabbed the King's glass from her sack, and held it to the tip of her sword. She prayed that as with the healing, her new Reader's energy would work for this. It was hard to see through the mud, but the orb's brilliant glow was visible nonetheless. Slowly raising her now glowing rapier, she fired as soon as it breached the muddy water.

The blue glowing orb she fired, which she had aimed at the wolfsbane, was a direct hit. As it impacted, the petal was sent fluttering in the air. The cats eyes widened as it locked on target and pounced at Quill's trap. Catching it right in its mouth, the coating of Quill's blood succeeded in fooling the cat into swallowing the poisonous petal. Assuming it had captured its prey, the cat wandered off to continue stalking the base of the tree Rufus was perched in. After holding her breath as long as she could without needing to gasp afterwards, Quill stuck just her head out of the mud and took a steady, quiet breath.

She looked about and didn't see the cat. With that, she slunk out of the pit, dripping mud as she favored stealth over speed. Quill tiptoed towards the burrow, keeping her eyes and ears out for any signs the cat was drawing near again. She was able to make it back into the undergrowth without further harassment, where she broke out again into a jog towards the burrow. Once there, she began climbing the nearby vegetation, keeping a look out for the cat. Eventually, she got high enough to see it, still waiting patiently at the bottom of the tree. Without warning the cat stood up, its hackles raising and its head lowering and it dry heaved, then dashed off into the brush away from Quill and Rufus. Quill was elated, jumping in the air with her paw raised. She turned around for a high four, but remembered her current Reader could only leave her hanging.

She was about to slide back down the plant she'd just climbed when she noticed Rufus, scampering down the tree. He leaped up to her afterwards. She gave him a pat on the side, grateful he hadn't been caught by the cat, and hopped up into the saddle. Rufus hopped down from atop the undergrowth and started heading back to the cottage when Quill smelled something unpleasant, and something she would describe as wrong, or even evil. Navigating Rufus towards the smell, Quill found the cat hadn't kept its lunch, in the end.


	4. Perfectly Balanced

As she approached what were once the contents of the massive beast's stomach, Quill saw the cause of the evil stench she detected. Among the cat's recent meal remains were black feathers, striated with still pulsing red veins of glowing dark magic. Quill thought these were undoubtedly the feathers of Byigg, the regicide of the King, one of the terrific beasts of the Armies of the Arcane that Quill had defeated a moon prior. "How could these still be around?" Quill thought; "I suppose still filled with that red energy, they are impossible to digest. I probably did that cat a favor." Not wanting another scavenger to happen across this same trophy, and thinking that perhaps the Glass had led to this encounter for this reason; Quill resolved to cremate the feathers.

Dismounting from Rufus, she led him over to some nearby twigs, and began gathering them on his saddle. After assembling a suitable pile, she led Rufus back to the feathers. As she hefted the first bundle and walked closer to her goal, she heard a sound from her sack. It was the sound of a Glass Relic activating. She took the King's relic out, and on a hunch, walked closer to the feathers. It glowed again, and sounded out as before; but this time Quill noticed an echoing glow among Byigg's remains. Rushing forward, the King's Glass became grossly incandescent as she neared the responding glow. As soon as she stood over it, close enough to see that it was the complementary piece of the incomplete Glass, there was a great flash.

Quill's ears flattened behind her head as she winced and covered her eyes. As the spots in her vision cleared, she reopened her eyes to find the King's Glass whole once more. The mouse warrior's first thought was that the Reader should be whole now. She looked about as before and was initially disappointed to see that they were still distant and more ephemeral than her first Reader. Then, her eyes gleamed with recognition; "Maybe the reason they're like that is because I'm not their chosen adventurer! I'm just the prologue!" Quill thought.

She resolved to continue with the cremation as she pondered who the correct chosen warrior could be. She finished piling the gathered twigs around the feathers. She broke two even smaller branches off the twigs. One, she secured on the ground. She grasped the other betwixt her paws and rotated it back and forth vigorously into the first, quickly building up a tinder of hot wood shavings inside. Dumping these onto the rodent sized bonfire, Byigg's tools of flight acted as the kindling for their own cremation, the whole pile going up in righteous flame. While going through the motions of starting this bonfire, and while watching it burn, Quill contemplated the options.

She didn't think that any of the current guard were particularly suitable. They were good soldiers, but just that. They lacked a spark of adventure. She thought of her uncle. He still had a strong sense of duty, and he certainly wouldn't stray from a fight he thought necessary, no matter the odds. "He is a talented warrior, or at least he was. The stories say he even fought alongside the previous Sprite Champion... That's it!" Quill thought; her eyes shined with inspiration as she thought of her spiritual predecessor. "The Sprite Glass got passed down to me," Quill thought, suddenly looking down with a bit of guilt; "and his armor, and sword. The Sprites of the Mire have been left with nothing after they helped us when the army of evil assaulted our kingdom. They should have the King's Glass. It's time to pay Vada a visit."


	5. The Gift

After the bonfire died out, the mouse adventurer kicked dirt over it, snuffing the dying embers. Quill was already around halfway between her cottage and the Mire, where she would find Vada and the other sprites. She called Rufus and mounted posthaste. Riding him, she flew over the treacherous path she once suffered through on foot. Rufus bounded over spike pits Quill once needed to balance over on too thin twig bridges or decayed weapons of the giants. Before she knew it, she had arrived at the small raft that would take her across the swamp. Quill left Rufus in much the same spot her uncle did all those moons ago, at the start of her first proper adventure. Undoing the knots in the yarn mooring the raft, Quill kicked off from dock and started her journey across the muck.

Drifting on the still, black water, she was reminded of the absence of the reader. She found both the friendly giant looming over her and their always brilliant reflection in the water were lacking. Quill thought, "I hope I get to go on an adventure with my old reader again soon. I'd better not just be the character who dies in the beginning of the story to pass on the Relic to someone else. I'd need to have words with the Author if that happened." Sitting on the back of the diminutive craft, she stuck her legs in the water and paddled to speed up her vessel.

It was nearing evening when Quill docked on the stone platform where she'd last encountered the sprites. Pulling the raft up to keep it in place, she departed for the scrying pool. There she was sure Vada would find her. The mouse adventurer left small footprints in disturbed moss on the odd, flat stone as she walked and scurried over small ledges towards her goal. Reaching the scrying pool, the Glass bearer saw no vision currently displayed in the still waters, and took a seat next to the depression.

The sun had not fallen much further when slick thumping noises could be heard, which Quill did not doubt for a moment were the footsteps of Vada's monotone toad mount. Vada and the toad stepped through the stone arches on the opposite side of the pool, Vada wasting no time to question Quill. "Why have you come here again, mouse? I hope you do not plan to ask for more assistance, sitting there in our champion's fittings." "No, Vada," replied Quill; "I have come to return your and your champions kindness."

With this, Quill opened her sack, from which a gentle but unwavering sky-blue light shone. She removed the Glass Relic of the king from within, drawing a questioning face from Vada, the Rootseer. "Do you intend to return our Relic, adventurer? It would be quite cruel to tease us like this otherwise." Quill said in return, "I come bearing a Glass for you indeed, though it is not your old Glass. This belonged to our king. I thought that a fair trade, for yours." "I wasn't sure this day would come," said Vada in return. "I am glad the animals of the forest have a kindhearted champion who does not forget their debts. Please consider our societies to be in balance once more."

Quill was offered the chance to stay to take the last meal of the day with the sprites, but declined. "I'm sure my uncle will be worried about me if I'm not back by sundown. Of course, knowing him, he'll be worried anyway." With that, the animal champion and the Rootseer bowed to each other, and parted ways. Quill shoved her craft once more into the swamp and departed for her home.

The evening sun made long shadows and stretches of golden light across the murky waters of the swamp as she paddled through. Once more she moored the raft with yarn to the dock, the now exhausted adventurer mounted Rufus before riding him home through the sun dappled woods, half asleep. She awakened from a small nap as Rufus reached his pen besides the cottage, she stumbled off, locked the enclosure and ambled to the door of her home. Quill opened the door and called out "Hi Uncle Argus, goodnight!" and fell down through the doorway.

Her Uncle gently picked up his now snoring niece and laid her in her bed, covering her with her quilt. "Goodnight Quill," said Sir Argus, sure that she'd regale him a harrowing tale in the morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed, and that my tone was not too dry. Please do let me know if you spot any spelling or grammatical errors, or for that matter if I ever shift out of past tense. It was somewhat exhausting remaining in that tense through the story, but as that is the style of narration in Moss I wanted to stick with it. I hope my story has made the wait for the second game a bit easier for you.


End file.
